The Android operating system (“Android OS”) relies on a rich inter-application messaging system called “Intents” for communication between applications. The messaging system promotes collaboration between applications by allowing applications to leverage existing data or services from each other. For example, a restaurant directory application can ask one application to launch the a restaurant website, another application to call a restaurant, another application to display directions to a restaurant, and so on.
The Intents based messaging system can pass data between applications. However, the default mechanisms for passing data between the application are generally insecure. The default mechanisms expose the data to not just the applications involved in the passing of the data but also to any other applications on the mobile device.